CoE alumni top competitor in Big 12 business event

CoE alumni top competitor in Big 12 business event

A College of Engineering alumni’s startup company has won a closer look from regional business leaders.

Paul Pattison, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering last year, is launching an Internet business in mid-April which will transform sequential photographs into Web site images that seem to rotate. Paul’s plans for his business — called “Picture Cloud” — earned a top four finalist position in the Big XII New Venture Championship held March 10 and 11 in Dallas, Texas.

Paul said Picture Cloud is far easier to use than other existing services.

“Typically, you have to be specialized to do this,” Paul said. “What I did is simplify it to the point where anyone who can read a paragraph of instructions can do it.”

Paul, competing in the championship as part of a four-member MU team, pitched his plan to judges drawn from the financial, business and legal fields. Sponsored by the Big XII Center for Economic Development, Innovation, and Commercialization, the first-time competition aimed to promote the commercialization of technologies developed at the Big 12 universities.